Honeywell International Medal Winner

By M Langdon

Published Monday, July 12, 2010

Professor Sarah Spurgeon, Head of the School of Engineering and Digital Arts (EDA) at the University of Kent, has been awarded the 2010 Honeywell International Medal in recognition of her outstanding contribution to control theory and systems engineering

The Honeywell Medal commemorates the granting of a Royal Charter to the Institute of Measurement and Control (InstMC) and is awarded annually to a chartered measurement and control technologist – described in the Royal Charter as a person engaged in the discipline of measurement and control and who may be a scientist, engineer or a mathematician.

Professor Spurgeon joined the University as Head of EDA in 2008. Her main areas of expertise are the development of practically realisable nonlinear control strategies which yield robust performance in the presence of uncertainty, and the design of robust condition monitoring schemes. She will receive her Medal during a ceremony at the Royal Society on 20 October

Professor Mark Burchell, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at the University, said: ‘I was delighted to hear the news of this well deserved international prize for Professor Spurgeon. Sarah's track record speaks for itself and the University of Kent is proud of her many achievements.’

Professor Spurgeon commented: ‘I am very honoured to receive this award from the Institute of Measurement and Control. Control and systems engineering is an exciting discipline at the heart of key problems of societal importance and I am very privileged to have the opportunity to work in areas as diverse as control of nuclear fusion, through control of biped robots to the development of tools for the assessment of upper limb movement throughout the rehabilitation process.

‘My area is an interdisciplinary one and this medal is wonderful recognition of the great team of collaborators with whom I have had the privilege to work over the past 20 years.’